Hate Khori strives to facilitate education for fishermen community

Rubel Mia, a local youth from Mathbaria, Pirojpur founded Hate Khori Foundation back in 2018, with the intention of providing proper education for the financially challenged children of fishermen in his community.

The organisation provides financial aid to the children of fishermen which includes funding for education, educational material and free classes. Alongside this, Hate Khori also strives to raise awareness about education in the local communities.

"In our Mathbaria community there are many families of fishermen who cannot send their children to school due to their financial situation," shared Rubel, adding, "Many of these families are not even aware of the significance of education in their children's lives. Hate Khori Foundation intends to change that."

In the beginning, Rubel Mia and along with the members of his Foundation went from door to door, trying to raise awareness about education. They also provided counselling to the families of fishermen about the type of opportunities that education can provide for their children.

"The normal scenario for these children, would be that they would become fishermen and start working on the fishing boats after a certain age," says Rubel. "Education for them was too expensive, and would not immediately contribution to the survival of their family. So, traditional education was simply a dream for them."

"Though our journey till now has not been smooth, we have never lost hope in our initiative and have continued to work towards our goals,"

— Shojib Mia a founding member of Hate Khori Foundation.

Back in 2018, Rubel Mia inaugurated the FreeFriday School, where children from the fishermen community could attend free classes on the weekend.

"At present, we have around a hundred members in our foundation, who are tirelessly working to help these children in the school, and at our library," smiled Rubel. "We aim to build a proper educational foundation for these children so that they can participate in the same activities that their peers are engaged in. We want to ensure that they can pursue their education, and that they are not left behind due to a lack of financial support."

"Keeping up with the modern world is not easy for these children, but it is necessary," stated Rubel. 

To ensure that the children are developing properly in terms of academic knowledge, social skills, mental health, and physical health, Hate Khori Foundation arranges an 'Anando Mela' and a Digital Science Fair amongst other events every year.

Rubel and his Hate Khori Foundation members have always approached their work with a sense of responsibility, regardless of the obstacles they encountered.

"At first, we faced countless criticism from our society, with many parents showing a level of mistrust in regards to our intentions. Some even said that we were wasting our time trying to do this," said Rubel. "Moreover, stagnant funding remains a major problem for us. Currently, most of our project funding comes from our own pockets, with a few small donations being provided by some of our well-wishers."

"Though our journey till now has not been smooth, we have never lost hope in our initiative and have continued to work towards our goals," shared Shojib Mia, a founding member of Hate Khori Foundation.

Hate Khori Foundation's FreeFriday School has already gathered fifty regular students, who attend classes every weekend. The initiative is already expanding at a rapid pace, as their awareness raising activities has proved to have a positive impact.

"Currently, our primary focus is to turn our school into a government-recognised educational institution, thereby ensuring a bright future for these children," concluded Rubel Mia.